Book and Film Globe Podcast Book and Film Globe

As part of the legendary first-ever Book and Film Globe Festival, we recorded an episode of our legendary podcast at The Book House in Long Branch, New Jersey, the hottest new bookstore on the Jersey Shore. Host Neal Pollack traveled thousands of miles to talk to some of his favorite contributors about the important cultural products of the day. It was delightful, and we drank much Pelican Punch.
Stephen Garrett and Neal reunited on a couch to talk about Alex Garland's 'Civil War.' Neal appreciated the aesthetics of the movie but despised its politics. Stephen didn't mind the politics but didn't really think the story works. Neal says the movie is an absolute projection of liberal neurosis about the possible re-election of Donald Trump. Neal likens it to 'Red Dawn,' which Stephen thinks is vaguely ridiculous, but the comparison is apt. What kind of American are you? Hopefully not the kind of American who thinks 'Civil War' is a documentary. Does this movie imagine what a Civil War would be like in modern America? Sure. But it's still a paranoid fantasy.
On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum is the fun and funny Girls 5Eva. we suppose your mileage may vary on this Tina Fey comedy about an aging 90s girl group. Contributor Matthew Ehrlich journeyed from New York City to the Jersey Shore to have a delightful conversation with Neal about the Tina Fey comedy factor, the fabulous Renée Elise Goldsberry, and who sings the Fuck the Police parody, "Ducks Are Mean Geese."
Thanks to Stephen and Matthew for making the trip, and thanks for Sea of Reeds Media for operating such amazing bookstores. This will not be our last live recording ever. Thanks for listening at all times, and in all formats!

It's a vibrant BFG podcast this week, as host Neal Pollack just keeps on having opinions about things. Stephen Garrett pops into the scene to discuss 'Monkey Man,' directed, written, and starting Dev Patel. They both find the movie stylish, fun, and exciting, but maybe Dev Patel could have used someone telling him no, and could have used an editor, and could have given some of his characters name. But for everything that's wrong with Monkey Man, there's a lot that's right, and Neal, who went to yoga school, reads a lot into the serious critique of Indian society that Patel offers up. It's not just a John Wick-style knockoff. If only it didn't have so many flashbacks.
Rachel Llewellyn appears to talk with Neal about 'Ripley,' the new eight-hour black-and-white adaptation of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley,' now airing on Netflix. Neal finds the new 'Ripley' way too self-consciously literary. A lot of people have been asking Neal if he's been watching Ripley, and he has been watching Ripley. Though he finds the black-and-white cinematography quite gorgeous, and has no issues with Andrew Scott's performance as Ripley, this "Ripleyist Ripley" ever made might be a little too much. It's a TV show for people who still subscribe to the New York Review of Books. Our memories of the 1990s 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' loom large. The new one looks gorgeous, but lacks glamour.
'X-Men '97' also likes glamour, but it's not supposed to be glamorous. It's supposed to bring back a classic 1990s Marvel Saturday morning cartoon. Scott Gold joins Neal to wax geekily about this fantastic reboot of a very influential show. The new X-Men cartoon is so true to the old X-Men cartoon that it feels like a direct continuation. But in a lot of ways, it's better, telling classic comic-book stories in a way that old cartoons just simply couldn't. If you like weird comics lore, this is the show of the year.
And this is the podcast of the year! Enjoy.

Neal Pollack is recovering from gout but still delivers a whopper of a podcast this week, with three familiar guests and a great variety of topics. Stephen Garrett comes in to chat about the bizarre 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,' which features his new favorite scene in a movie: King Kong using Baby King Kong as a club to beat up some other super underground apes. What a weird movie this is, perfect for a 10- year-old boy, essentially a Transformers movie starring King Kong and Godzilla (and Mother!) and Dan Stevens as the world's coolest animal dentist.
Not as good or as fun is '3 Body Problem' on Netflix, which guest William Schwartz describes as being about how great scientists are but not really actually caring about what science does. That sums up a big problem in our culture, and in the show, which is about a super-team of super-scientists who get together to be attractive and stop a global threat, but does not even begin to approach the philosophical depth of the Chinese novel series on which it's based. We consider this a shallow disappointment over at BFG.
We talk about food on the podcast, as we often do. Robert Dean stops by to praise and also make fun of 'Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions,' which both he and Neal find entertaining, but they also find themselves wondering: What are we doing here? Why are we watching this? No one actually has the skill to cook like this in real life? Why is cooking now a sport, and not a daily activity for nourishment? And what's with all the nicknames?
We ask the important questions on the BFG podcast. Thanks for listening.

Spring is here and we have a fun and light spring menu this week on the podcast. Stephen Garrett hops into frame and tries to answer host Neal Pollack's question: Why do we need a Ghostbusters: The Next Generation? Stephen says that 'Frozen Empire' is far better and more fun than the previous maudlin Ghostbusters reboot, but there are too many busters, too much lore, too much reverence. Neal makes the point that the original Ghostbusters was irreverent and almost conservative in its middle finger to the liberal Hollywood establishment. Stephen points out that it was a shit-talking working-man hangout movie. 'Frozen Empire' is awash in nostalgia for culture it doesn't even begin to understand.
'Top Chef' has managed to reboot itself without its host Padma Lakshmi, replacing her with former champion Kristin Kish. Rachel Llewellyn joins Neal and they basically have nothing but nice things to say about Kish's vibe on the show, about the production quality, and about the quality of the cooking, the competition, and of its narrative abilities. In a food-media world oversaturated with cooking competitions, Top Chef remains state of the art, and we're glad to have it back.
Magically, Stephen Garrett returns to the podcast to wax enthusiastically about the reboot of 'Road House.' Neal points out that the movie basically has no plot and no real character development, but Stephen doesn't seem to think those things are necessary in a movie. He argues that we should accept Road House on its own terms and just let the dumb wide-angle action carry us along. They agree to disagree, then bash each other over the head with a chair.
Enjoy the show!

It's an excellent and thoughtful podcast this week. Host Neal Pollack welcomes Sharyn Vane and Michael Washburn to discuss their recent articles about questionable attitudes toward Israel and Jewish people in general in the literary world. Sharyn discusses the cancellation of actor Brett Gelman's recent book tour, tying it to how progressives don't want to approach the Israel-Hamas conflict with anything even close to nuance. Michael, who wrote about a South African writer returning a prestigious literary medal in protest of the German government's support of Israel, says that antisemitism on the left is a real problem. Neal is just concerned about anti-Jewish sentiment in general among writers, who have, at least in his lifetime, been strong allies of the Jewish people. That calculus has clearly changed, and we will continue to cover this change on Book and Film Globe.
We will also continue to cover lesbian road-trip crime movies if they make any more, which they probably won't. Regardless, Stephen Garrett is here so he and Neal can be two straight guys talking about lesbian road-trip crime movies. Stephen makes the interesting point that 'Love Lies Bleeding' and 'Drive Away Dolls' both take place in the past, because only in the past would gay female relationships be an issue that would create any kind of dramatic tension. They both praise Katy O'Brien's magnetic performance in Love Lies Bleeding, and Neal liked the ironic ending, but Stephen found the movie too self-satisfied and didn't really admire the empty artistic flourishes.
'Drive Away Dolls' from Ethan Coen, on the other hand, is the kind of embarrassing lesbian movie "grandpa" would make, Stephen says, though, like Neal, he found the central relationship sweet and Margaret Qualley's lead performance really compelling. Both these movies suffer from script problems and relevance problems, though they're relevant enough for us to talk about.
Enjoy our show, which is always relevant!

We are finally clear of the Oscars, and host Neal Pollack leads off this week's podcast with an audio version of his rant we published early this week. The Oscars are for the special people, not for the regulars of life. And yet we keep falling into their trap, because we love to watch movies.
We do not, however, love to watch 'Spaceman' starring Adam Sandler. Omar Gallaga reviewed Spaceman for us and just does not buy Adam Sandler as a sad Czech astronaut in an alternative 1980s. Dan Friedman actually read the book upon which Spaceman is based, and he says the movie doesn't even come close to approximating the book's satire of post-Cold War Czech identity. Dan also had trouble with the Carey Mulligan wife character, who's stuck back on Earth with nothing to do. They both kind of liked the odd imaginary space spider, voiced by Paul Dano, but this movie is a big miss overall.
Not missing is 'The Tourist,' whose second season is on Netflix right now. Jenny Parrott joins Neal to talk about The Tourist, a show that she likes and that our dad likes. It's a deep dive into identity and consciousness, and also a great adventure show and a surprisingly moving romance. Neal senses comic elements of the Coen Brothers in The Tourist, and he thanks Jenny for bringing this fun show to our attention.
And we hope you enjoy this podcast as well!